Romeo and Bernadette

Paper Mill: The State Theater of NJ

Millburn, NJ - February 2003

Review by John Kenrick

There's a nifty bit of hilarity cutting loose in the New Jersey countryside,
involving Sopranos-style mobsters, Shakespearean romance, and some
dazzling melodies thrown in for the heck of it. If you're looking for some
fresh musical comedy fun, look no further than Paper Mill's delightful
production of Romeo and Bernadette, the most unlikely good time I've
had in many a night at the theatre.

So if this show is so much fun, why isn't it across the Hudson?
Frankly, it still needs a bit of work. The opening is a bit murky, and the titular
lovers don't have a much needed love duet  but these things could easily be
fixed. Once you get past the somewhat confusing opening scene and catch on to what is
happening, Romeo and Bernadette offers up two fast-paced hours of
good-natured tom foolery. And if you think solid belly laughs are anything less
than a lifesaving tonic in these troubled times, think again! With
musical comedies back in vogue on Broadway, Romeo and Bernadette
is too good a show to ignore.

Mark Saltzman (best known for co-writing the revue A My Name is
Alice) has crafted this new musical out of an admittedly far-fetched
idea. The action begins in Brooklyn on a night in 1960, when a young man finds
his date in tears after seeing an experimental production of Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet. Realizing that her weeping will drown his hopes for a
romantic evening, he tells her that the story actually has a happy ending, then
launches into a wildly inventive riff on the original. It seems Romeo didn't die
after all  he was drugged, and somehow wakes up in 1960. Still seeking his
long-dead Juliet (and still spouting Shakespearean blank verse  in Italy?), he
finds her look alike, the curvaceous Bernadette. When she and her mafia don father
return to Brooklyn, Romeo follows, and his ongoing pursuit of Bernadette sparks
a war between mafia families.

Saltzman has also crafted the highly entertaining score, setting new lyrics to
classic Italian art songs and Neapolitan love ballads. Being of Italian decent
(on my mother's side), I grew up listening to my grandmother croon these tunes
as she simmered her marinara sauce, so I was a but leery of any attempt to
turn these lifelong favorites into showtunes. As it turns out, such
worries were groundless. Saltzman's often witty lyrics are a pleasure, and he
sensibly alters some tempos while leaving others in their original form.
A case in point is "Mattinata," a Leoncavallo classic that has
earned the Three Tenors many an ovation over the years. Here it becomes
"Moonlight Tonight Over Brooklyn," with the entire ensemble
singing together during an Italian church festival. I found myself smiling
that goofy smile I get whenever I find myself falling in love with a new
show. An intelligent, romantic number making inventive use of a grand
melody to turn an everyday setting into something magical  how could I resist?

This material could easily have floundered in the wrong hands, but director
Mark Waldrop (When Pigs Fly) is one of the few people I know of who
is truly qualified to keep zaniness and romance in proper balance. Guns and kisses
fly through the air with equal ease, and dialogue flows effortlessly into song.
Waldrop also gets credit for some excellent casting decisions, both in
leading roles and key ensemble parts.

As the time-traveling Romeo, Adam Monley (fresh from
Broadway's Mamma Mia!) is as ardent and handsome as anyone
legendary lover should be, charming the heck out of the audience from
his first iambic rhyme to his last "fuggedaboudit." Natalie
Hill drips 60's Flatbush chic as Bernadette, using a foul-mouthed
tough-girl exterior to hide a heart that yearns for love. Andy Karl is a
real audience pleaser, playing the gangster's son who befriends Romeo 
his rapid-fire musical listing of past girlfriends is a surprise
showstopper. Rosie DeCandia played Bernadette's sidekick Donna
with comic flair, and David Brummel and Charles Pistone
were perfectly cast as the warring mafia dons. Emily Zacharis won laughs
as a mobster wife, and silver throated Vince Trani was a riot as
the most cuddly body guard the mafia ever called its own. Special kudos
go to John Paul Almon who handles seven roles with scene-stealing
brio  including an Irish priest, a dictatorial dance teacher, and the
kind of gravel-voiced, chain-smoking dress shop owner my mother knew all
too many of in my Queens-Brooklyn childhood.

The production qualities are solid in every department. Michael
Anania's airy unit set keeps the action flowing smoothly, and Miguel Angel
Huidor's colorful costumes add just the right period touches  including
the most over the top wedding gown I've seen outside of Bensonhurst. F.
Mitchell Dana's lighting is a delight, as are Louis Forestieri's
arrangements, handled adroitly by Bruce W. Coyle's intimate
ensemble.

The best new musical of the new year is up and running, and in
New Jersey. If this is what we can expect to see when Paper Mill  the
shrine of revivals  decides to showcase a new show, then I hope to
heaven they do a lot more in the future. Romeo and Bernadette is
the most fun thing to come along since Hairspray, and miles ahead
of the dancing vampires, amour-less Frenchmen and clumsily revised
revivals Broadway has been subjected to over the past year. With a cast of
ten, R&B could easily migrate across the harbor. Just in case
it doesn't, give yourself a midwinter treat and pop over to Millburn
 it's less than half an hour by train from midtown Manhattan, so no
excuses New Yorkers!